For this chapter's completion, I owe my thanks to Acha, Merrick, Doktur, and I think Kaiser and Illusion Fox.
Please leave comments, concerns and questions either in the reviews or PMs. Thank you.
Chapter 3
"Supīdo, although you lost against the Archer and are no longer in the Alpha White Wolf Tournament, you've been voted most desirable bachelor. How does that make you feel?"
The woman standing before me was a Crow Tengu named Aya Shameimaru. If this was going into a newspaper, no one was going to read it. Hell, I even collected newspapers, but I never read them myself. My body wasn't strong enough to carry our special Tengu armor and maintain my unsurpassed agility, so I hired someone to make me paper armor using discarded newspaper. It would have come in handy when I fought Sasuke Ito later.
"It makes my heart warm to know that there are those who look past combat ability," I said with a smile.
"Do you have anything to say to those who might be facing the Archer in future rounds?"
"If you want to win against him, you must not underestimate him."
...
I shook my head at the memory. Why was I remembering that now of all times? I was on a mission, tracking four human women. And I had to do it alone. Why? Because my first partner got himself so injured from making enemies for himself years ago and my second partner's species' physiology couldn't run faster than 40 miles an hour without mechanical or magical aid.
Although, unlike my fellow Tengu, the Kappa wasn't sickening to the gut to look at even if a nightly session of love-making was out of the question. Noire was cute, but I wasn't going to have a fling with a Kappa woman again unless I could make sure that she wasn't into me just for my shirikodama like the last two. Horrible times, not as bad as when my parents were killed for marrying despite being two different types of Tengu (even if the police of Tengu City claimed there was no evidence as to why they were killed) but even so there are some places fingers shouldn't go, no matter how delicate. That includes a meter up my intestines. Thank Sarutahiko for being born with regenerative properties.
Back to the present, that ugly Tengu from the weaver family can go kill himself (condescending bastard). My nose may not be as good as his, but it's good enough to track a group of pathetic humans, not to mention I am faster, more dexterous and more likable than him.
Flying over the forest, I followed the scent of the four women we were tasked to find. Wait, where did my control over the wind go? Shit, I'm falling!
"UAAGUH!" I grunted as my body crashed and skidded across the dirt ground. When I finally came to a stop, I pushed myself up, feeling heavier than I normally did.
I had a scrape on my body, it wasn't bleeding but it also wasn't healing. I drew my two tantōs and scanned the area for an enemy target. The two tantōs in my hands felt heavier than normal, like I was holding two ōdachi at the same time. To make matters worse, my eyesight had lost much of its range, which made seeing the attacker harder.
Son of a fairy! My nose wasn't working either, and I can't activate my clairvoyance either! This was clearly a deliberate assault against my senses, so where was the person responsible? Where the hell are they!?
A man walked out of the bushes and onto the road in front of me. The only distinctions he had from a normal human was his white mask fastened to his head by brown cord and the sack strapped to his back. If you took those away, you couldn't pick him out from a crowd.
He froze the moment he looked in my direction. "You're... not Mr. Stewart," he muttered while lifting his hand. "Sorry, but this is for the greater good."
Lightning flew from his hand. It struck me and pain coursed throughout my whole body. I staggered back before I caught myself.
"You're sturdier than you look," he said before he raised his hand again. "But this will end y-"
While he was in mid-sentence, I materialized a tantō out of thin air and magically propelled it at the man. Unable to dodge it, it struck him in the shoulder, making a shallow cut and interrupting his spell. My abilities as a Tengu and as a youkai seemed to be unresponsive, but I still wielded my magic just fine. If he wanted to make this a fight using spells, I'd simply overwhelm him with a spell that he can't defeat.
He lifted his hand. I could see the magical energies in it. I leapt to the right as fast as I could, narrowly dodging the lightning as it flew from his hand.
I made the hand motion "Hasten" for casting my spell. This would let me cast the spell immediately, bypassing the need of speaking its incantation, even if it would burn through my magical energy reserves at a much greater rate, "Infinite Tantōs."
The human's eyes widened. "Shit! SHIT!" he shouted. He knew that he wasn't prepared to fight against me. He could see his inevitable death. The gray gate formulated behind me. The human made hand movements. The tantōs formed from the gray distortion. The human continued chanting while making hand movements. And since my swords contain poison, all I needed was one hit to kill him.
The tantōs flew at the human by the hundreds, each at the speed of arrow. He had nowhere to go. I won.
"Lighting Chain!"
In that instant, I was blinded and seared by the same force from before, albeit weaker. But less pain only allowed me to see the thousands of tantōs I create be torn apart and feel the gate behind me explode into magic particles. I was only knocked off balance, nothing a few seconds of rest on my knee couldn't help. But his spell rendered my efforts a complete waste.
"Still alive, let alone conscious... A side effect from being in the field?" the human asked as he pulled out a scroll. "Anti-magic field."
He's gutting his only means to fight me? I can turn this around! I picked up my two tantōs from the ground and charged at him. He drew something like a gold plated pistol and-
A loud crack rang through the air. I did not even see a hint of anything flying at me before I felt something tear through my arm.
"Uagh!" I grunted.
"Gary Stewart," the masked man said, "I must thank you for bringing this weapon into our world."
I staggered, but before I could run, another loud crack rang through the air. I felt something hit my stomach, only being stopped by the paper armor I wore underneath my clothes. A third and my shoulder felt like its surface was cut with a hot knife as my limbs were not protected by the paper armor. A fourth, my leg collapsed underneath me. A fifth crack, a sharp pain in my chest as I was thrown onto my back. The bullet was stopped, but I felt like I had internal bleeding, and my body was still weakening from the previous wounds.
I'm in pain, the clicking sound coming from the gun is painful to hear, I feel cold.
"Huh, only the satori lived past the first shot before," the human said. "Good thing I aimed for body instead of the head, being a piss poor shot and all."
Wait, the human was an incompetent with such a lethal weapon, yet here he was inflicting brutal after brutal injury on me? Impossible! My defeat was not befitting of this worm! My birthright as a Tengu will not be tainted. I forced my foot underneath me and tried to stand.
"You're still fighting. That must mean your youkai abilities are still working their magic." The human laughed. "Get it? Magic?" he asked. He paused for a moment, looking at me as I tried to get onto my second leg before he resumed speaking. "Sorry, it must have sounded funnier in my head. Dismiss spell," he said. I could feel the air vibrate, as if the invisible field created by his magic collapsed. But before I could even start casting a spell, he struck me with his gun as if it were a blunt weapon. Too weak from the blood loss, I fell to my knees. But my concentration, although weak, wasn't broken; the spell would exhaust my magical energy supply to the last drop since I couldn't make hand movements or speak its incantations, but my wounds would close. He holstered the pistol and pulled out a book. He outstretched his hand and spoke. "Demon Book: Eternal Containment. And here, the human kills the youkai."
What? A human killing a Tengu? A youkai sorcerer can be this powerful, a vampire can be this powerful, an oni can be this powerful, a devil can be this powerful, a demon can be this powerful, even a beast can be this powerful. One single human, on the other hand, can't be this powerful!
"Impossible! Ludicrous!" I said, my new found strength making me stand on my feet again. "I, the fastest and most beautiful White Wolf Tengu, will not be defeated by a filthy primate!" I declared as I charged him with my swords.
I felt something jolt through me and I couldn't move. My body started glowing and-what was this? My arms, they started cracking apart like brittle dirt, and the pieces that fell turned into ethereal energy. My legs started breaking apart too! Now my body and head were disappearing, melting away, turning into mist!
"What did you do!?" I ordered him. "Answer me, you worm! I demand you to tell me!" He simply stared; a cold, uncaring, condescending stare. It was as if he was bored of me, like my existence didn't matter.
Stop it, you mongrel! I'm better than you! Don't you dare stare at me like that! Don't stare at me like that! I'm better than you! Don't stare at me like that! Let me go! You filthy monkey!
I'll come back just like any other youkai does and-Wait, why is it so dark? I can't see anything! Oh gods, where am I!? I can't hear anything! I can't feel anything!
Is he sealing m-?
